This kind of thing is a total PITA and has in the past contributed to the site being shut down due to overloading the SQL server of our shared host. When someone clicks on a story it's not simply a matter of a bit of text appearing on the screen, there are a whole load of database operations carried out including updates to indicate the number of reads for that item has increased, the member's database records that the item has been viewed, the last read list gets an entry, various stats tables get updated, if it's a serial there are searches carried out to see if there are next and previous parts, the activity list is updated to show what is being read and so on and so forth. if it was just one individual doing this it wouldn't be an issue but there are often more than 40 people on the site all doing things which involve database transactions so mindless flicking over a prolonged period of time is really bad news. Following the last time we got shut down I built in safety mechanisms to protect the site from overload so those who persist to mindless flick several items a minute for a certain length of time will find themselves locked out until an admin takes the time to free up their account again. We will similarly lock out anyone we suspect of mass copying, as apart from being asked not to do it and in many cases us not having the permission of the author it too places an unacceptable load on the server. |